I would be lying to you if I said this 21 day process was easy to document. I didn't quite think about the amount of work it would take. Yesterday, I used examples of transition meats to pull together a meal when you have nothing planned. Today, I'm showing what it looks like when you eat out. One restaurant was plant-based so it's really a no brainer. The second restaurant I ate at offers veggie and meat options.
In the resources page I have included information on Happy Cow which will help guide you when you are out and about.. I also wanted to mention strategies for ordering at harder to eat at restaurants like steak houses or traditional American fair. If you walk into a restaurant and you don't see anything vegetarian on the menu, start looking at the sides or what other items on the menu come with. For example if you are at a steakhouse, then most likely you will see baked potatoes, green beans, spinach or broccoli. They almost always have salads. You may need to ask for something boring like lemon and olive oil. Even if you don't see it on the menu, if they serve seafood or alcohol chances are there is a lemon in the kitchen. If you are saying, what only a potato for dinner, that's crazy? Check out Andrew Taylor's story on Today.com. He decided to only eat potatoes for a year to try to fix a food addiction problem. He ended up losing 115 pounds, getting off his meds and restoring his health. I think we often eat way more than we actually need.
Upon waking- Lemon Water with Meditation
Morning Breakfast Smoothie- I used 1 tbsp of almond butter instead of sprouted almonds this time.
Turmeric Ginger Hot Shot and Green Juice An interesting note on the green juice is I did an experiment yesterday with a friend. I've been unhappy with adding spirulina to my shakes. I see them as almost desserts and every time I put it in there I didn't love what it did to the taste. So yesterday we added 1 teaspoon spiraling to the green juice. It was really good. It seemed to belong and the bitterness did not override the taste. My friend agreed too. Spirulina is a wonderful superfood. It's rich in protein, an antioxidants. I had read that it is great if you suffer from allergies and also for eyesight. I have had issues with season allergies since I moved here. I would find that on days of high pollen my vision would change and I would need to use my reading glasses. I would also get a mild headache. I usually don't have to use them anymore and I've had this pair for many, many, many years. I have not needed them for reading at all this year not have I had any headaches. I think the spirulina is helping.
Lunch was out at Organika Kitchen in Southport, CT. I was running errands and didn't have any time to stop home to eat. They are pretty quick there so I ordered ahead of time and ate lunch there. I had the Nourish Bowl, which is organic red and white quinoa with portobello meatballs, sweet potato, spinach, tomatoes. topped with cashew cheese and pesto. I also had a Health Aid Maca Berry kombucha. The bowl is rather filling but I was really hungry yesterday and I ate a lot. I managed to practice yoga in the morning, teach a class and then go out and take one too that day. So enjoyed a lot of yummy food.
Around 5pm I was hungry again and decided to make a banana, almond butter cacao nib smoothie. They are rather decadent and I make them a lot of my oldest daughter when I take her to dance. It's almost like a milk shake except its got a lot of nutrients.
Dinner was at a restaurant again. This time, Bangkok Republic in Wilton (Georgetown), CT. My whole family loves this place. My husband and I shared the avocado rolls to start and then I had the Green Curry with Tofu. They use organic tofu there. I always ask and skip if it's not. I have them substitute the bamboo because, yuck and add broccoli instead. I also had a beer. I thought I would mention that because I never said you can't drink at all on this 21 day adventure. I'm trying to give you a snapshot of where I am right now and I felt like having beer last night. So I did. :)
Dessert- I made chonutty for chocolate chip cookies from Gena Hamshaw's cookbook Choosing Raw. I really love this cookbook. Raw pretty much means, yummy food that you spend time prepping and assembling but not cooking. So think good tasting food that makes less of a mess in the kitchen. Oh, and it's really healthy. Gena Hamshaw posts a lot of recipes online but she hasn't for this one. After digging around a bit this one probably tastes similar to this recipe although it's certainly more complicated than her recipe.
If you are still with me, I wanted to give you a heads up that I will be making granola tomorrow. It required that you soak some nuts. I found a recipe online that explains how to make one very close to the version I make without a dehydrator. In the version I make, I do not use orange juice, raisins, the orange or lemon zest or the cranberries. Instead I use one teaspoon ginger or 1/2-1 inch chunk of peeled ginger plus another apple. She has also tweaked the original recipe to equal parts almonds, walnuts and pecans. The version I use does not have walnuts, just pecans. I chop the apple up at the end into small pieces with the peel on. Usually I use one red and one green total but tomorrow I will use both green since that's what I have on hand. This recipe looks good if you like raisins and cranberries. Feel free to adjust as you wish.